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My friends, it’s been too long. And I’ve been busy. But I’ve missed you! I’ve been cooking so much, I’ve not taken the time to attend to my global family.

Today, I made some very delicious food. One of my clients had some special requests, and among them was that my meals and a special dessert all be gluten free. Now, don’t misunderstand me. I LOVE gluten. I mean I really love it. I would marry it. I kind of am married to it. But when my client makes a special request, I most happily oblige. So I made panna cotta. Vegan panna cotta. And it was as easy as everyone said it would be!

I modified a recipe I found on thekitchn.com, and I think it came out great! Let me know what you think!

Also, please, if you’re looking for a vegan version of a favorite food, please let me know, and I’ll see if I can make it deliciously vegan for you! As I said, I take requests!

Please note, I’ve begun cooking and baking in metric. If you need a conversion to imperial measurements, let me know, but do yourself a favor and get yourself a scale!

Put the coconut milk, sugar, yogurt, salt, and agar agar flakes in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a boil, whisking regularly. Once boiling, reduce heat to low and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside to cool for a couple of minutes.

Divide half of the blueberries equally among 6 6- to 8-oz ramekins. Pour the panna cotta over the blueberries, and put the ramekins in the refrigerator to set for 3 hours or so.

Just before serving, divide the remaining half of the blueberries equally between the ramekins, and enjoy!

Is there anything yummier than peanut butter? Any food more versatile? A cheaper protein source that pleases grown-ups and kids alike? For me, the answer is definitely no. We’re a peanut butter family. We all love it in sandwiches, on noodles with broccoli and tofu (another recipe on my blog), as a dipping sauce, on apples, celery… on a spoon… on my finger… I even prefer it over almond or cashew butter.

Another thing I love is when one of my favorite things to cook happens to be another person’s favorite thing to eat. My burritos are one of those items. And now, this chili is another. How could it not be? Because, PEANUT BUTTER.

Full disclosure, I adapted this from Elisabeth Rozin’s Ethnic Cuisine. As I’ve said before, it’s my all-time favorite cookbook. The original recipe called for ground beef, but I’ve made it vegan and way more awesome.

African lentil chili – serves 6-8

2-3 tbsp oil

1 lrg onion, chopped

2 lrg red bell peppers, chopped

2 Hatch green chiles (or other chile), halved and sliced

2 15-oz cans tomato sauce

1/4 cup barbecue sauce

2-3 tbsp (vegan) worcestershire sauce

3 cups frozen corn, roasted, if possible

5 cups cooked lentils, de Puy or other green/brown variety

1 tbsp Tabasco, or to taste

1 cup peanut butter

Salt and pepper to taste

Serving suggestion- serve over roasted sweet potatoes

Preheat a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add oil and onion, and saute for 5-7 minutes until soft and translucent. Add the bell peppers and the chiles, and cook, stirring, until soft. Add the tomato sauce, barbecue sauce, and worcestershire sauce￼. Let simmer for a minute, then add the corn. Let simmer until thick, and then add the lentils. Add the Tabasco and peanut butter, and let simmer until the desired thickness, about 5 minutes. Add the salt and pepper, to taste. Serve on top of roasted sweet potato halves.

When cooking for my clients, I often end up picking a favorite dish of the week. It could be something complicated, with lots of steps, or something requiring a lot of time. It could be a whole meal I love, or something as simple as a sauce. Every once in a while, it’s a humble side salad. Such was the case this week.

I was making a southern-style meal, with biscuits, a black-eyed pea stew, white asparagus, and cole slaw. Cole slaw is easy, and while I used to think I needed a recipe, I’ve realized that I don’t. It’s mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar, salt, and pepper, and I generally use a cheat of pre-shredded cole slaw vegetables, because that’s all it is: just the veggies.

Today, as I was reaching into the fridge to grab the mayo, I spotted the tahini. So I grabbed both. And this simple cole slaw was born.

Place the mayo and tahini in a large bowl, and whisk to blend. Add the lemon juice, sugar, paprika, salt, and pepper, and whisk until smooth and well blended. Toss in the vegetables, and mix well with a big spoon. Garnish with extra smoked paprika (because it’s awesome).

There are certain meals that are sure-bets when feeding my family. Often, they include pasta. Fortunately, this one also includes broccoli and tofu, and is so delicious, everyone will love it, and you won’t get tired of it. It’s peanut butter noodles. I’ve been futzing with the recipe for a long time, trying different recipes to see which one I like best. Well, I’ve finally made the one, the Platonic ideal of peanut butter noodles, if you will. It tastes like satay, and it is delicious. I have a little bit of sauce left over, so I guess I’m going to have to make tofu satay! Bummer.

This is a recipe specifically for my kids, so it’s not very spicy. When my husband and I eat it, we add plenty of sriracha, which is highly recommended, but you could also use hot curry powder instead of regular curry powder or add cayenne to the sauce mix. Also, we all love what happens to broccoli when it’s roasted, so I take that step here, but you could just as easily add it to the pan. It’s so easy to roast, though, and if you fry the broccoli in the pan, you still should/have to remove the tofu from the pan in order to get the broccoli the direct contact with the pan that it deserves. Do it however you like, though.

Peanut butter noodles with tofu and broccoli

1 head of broccoli, broken and chopped into small florets

1 – 2 tbsp olive oil

Salt to taste

1 lb whole wheat pasta (spaghetti or other shape)

3 tbsp canola oil

1 lb extra-firm tofu, cubed into 1/2″ dice

13 oz can coconut milk

1/2 cup peanut butter (I use natural peanut butter with nothing added to it, except salt, I don’t know what this would be like with Jif)

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 1/2 tbsp agave

1 tsp tamarind paste

2 tbsp curry powder

1 tbsp kosher salt

1 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp ground coriander

Chopped roasted peanuts for garnish, optional

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with aluminum foil (makes clean-up easy), and spray with cooking spray. Place the broccoli florets on the foil, pour the olive oil over it and add the salt. Toss with your hands until all the florets have a light coating of the oil. Roast for about 18 to 20 minutes, stirring and tossing about half-way through cooking time.

Cook the pasta according to package directions. My husband likes spaghetti, but it’s messy for the kids, so I break it into smaller pieces.

Heat a large cast iron pan over slightly lower than medium-high heat. Add the canola oil. When the oil is hot, add the tofu and then leave it alone. If you try to move it before the tofu is properly caramelized, you’ll lose the crispy skin to the pan. When it lifts fairly easily, after a good 8 to 10 minutes, toss it around in the pan to caramelize it on another side.

Meanwhile, in a small saucepan, combine the coconut milk, peanut butter, soy sauce, agave, tamarind paste, curry powder, salt, ginger, and coriander, and place the saucepan over medium heat. Stir often to incorporate the peanut butter and to ensure that it doesn’t burn to the bottom of the pan. When the sauce starts to simmer and bubble, it’s ready to serve.

In a large bowl, toss together the drained pasta, the broccoli, the tofu, and the sauce until thoroughly combined. Serve with plenty of sriracha and chopped peanuts, if you want to be fancy.

I have mentioned before that I am a member of a bread makers’ group on Facebook. I know. Whatever. Who cares? This is a group, though, of amazing people from all around the world, and I am inspired by so many of them numerous times a day. So last week, a friend posted that he’d made a Turkish kind of pizza called lahmacun, and several of us nerded out on the subject. At the time, I was baking lemon thyme pitas for my client, had just roasted an eggplant and some peppers, and had some cooked chickpeas out. So of course, I made myself some lahmacun.

I swear. I moaned with EVERY BITE.

Lemon thyme pitas

4 cups bread flour

1 tbsp instant yeast

1 tbsp sugar

1 3/4 cups warm water

2 tsp salt

Zest of half of a lemon

1 tsp dried thyme

Place flour, yeast, sugar, water, and salt in the bowl of a standing mixer, and mix on low for 3 minutes. Increase speed to medium, and mix for another 5 minutes. Place the dough in a bowl sprayed with cooking spray, then spray the top of the dough, and cover with plastic wrap. Let rest until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours, but give it whatever time it needs!

Uncover, add the zest and thyme, and knead on low speed for about 3 to 5 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°. Pull off little chunks of dough, about the size of a golf ball, roll in flour, then roll out each ball to a thin disk. Place each disk on a cookie sheet coveted in foil and sprayed with cooking spray. Bake for 3 minutes on the lowest rack of the oven, then gently flip over and bake for another 3 minutes.

I made 21 pitas!

Lahmacun for one

olive oil for drizzling

zaatar, to taste

1/4 cup cooked chickpeas, mashed with a potato masher

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup diced roasted eggplant*

1/4 cup diced roasted pepper**

kosher salt, to taste

Preheat the broiler and make sure the rack is as close to the top of the oven as possible. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray, and place your pita on top. Drizzle a little olive oil over the pita, then sprinkle on the zaatar, mashed chickpeas, garlic, eggplant, roasted pepper, and salt. Drizzle a little more olive oil on, then place under the broiler for just a few minutes, watching closely. Slice into wedges or don’t and get a messy face. The choice is yours. I don’t judge.

*How to roast eggplant – Dice the eggplant into small cubes, about 1/2″ dice, no need to peel. Place the eggplant on a cookie sheet sprayed with cooking spray, drizzle with a little olive oil, and toss with your hands. Place under a preheated broiler for about 8 minutes, then flip. Broil until well browned, but not burned. Test with a fork: it should be soft.

**How to roast peppers – If you like roasted peppers, you will never buy them in a jar again. This is so easy and so delicious. Preheat your broiler and place the rack on the second level below the top of the oven. Place a sheet of aluminum foil on your cookie sheet, and spray with cooking spray. Place your washed peppers (I do 6 at a time) on your cookie sheet, and broil for about 25 minutes, turning about every 5 to 7 minutes, until charred on all sides. Remove from the oven, wrap the peppers tightly with the aluminum foil on which they’re sitting, and let steam for about 20 minutes or so, until cool enough to handle. Peel the charred skins off as well as you can, but don’t worry about getting it all off. If you do it under running water, it’s easier, but not necessary.

On nights when I want to serve an elegant dinner to my family – perhaps for Shabbat – I make a meal that is also one of the simplest and fastest to make: tofu steaks, sauteed green beans with garlic, and some kind of potato, generally mashed or roasted. As my children get bigger, one pound of tofu is no longer enough for all of us. A few days ago, I made our favorite elegant meal, this time, the potatoes were mashed. I made more mashed potatoes than I thought we’d eat, because I’d wanted to use them in a bread (soft potato bread, anyone?). Well, I also made 2 pounds of tofu, which is definitely more tofu than the five of us are going to eat in one dinner, and I made more green beans than I needed, too, who knows why. So what do leftover vegetables, leftover protein, and leftover mashed potatoes make? Why, shepherd’s pie, of course! I also had an abundance of mushroomy items in my fridge, and I was just in the mood for a mushroomy flavor, so I used all of them.

I’ve said it before. I love leftovers. I especially love repurposing leftovers. To me, there’s nothing like taking something that was already great, and making something completely different and still great out of it! I also am a BIG fan of not wasting food. And I’m a fan of feeding my family things they love. So this shepherd’s pie is a win-win all over the place.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and spray an 8×8″ casserole with cooking spray. Heat a large cast iron pan over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan, and if using fresh (not leftover) tofu, saute tofu until golden. If using leftover tofu, add onions to the pan first, and saute until translucent. Add garlic and mushrooms, and saute until the mushrooms have released their liquid and are soft. Add green beans and tofu, if using leftover tofu, and saute until the green beans are soft. Add soy sauce, sage, and thyme, and saute until everything is coated in the syrupy soy sauce. Add the peas to the pan.

Combine the flour and stock in a bowl, and whisk until no lumps appear. Add the stock to pan, and stir long enough to thicken and coat everything. Taste for salt. Pour the mixture into the prepared casserole, and top with the mashed potatoes, making a crust. Sprinkle on the smoked paprika. Place in the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. Enjoy!

I recently joined a bread bakers’ group on Facebook, and have learned a tremendous amount from the global community that participates. There are people from almost every continent and every region in the world. And the camaraderie, encouragement, and connection in the group is pure magic.

My friend Grace recently posted a beautiful picture of butter rolls: shiny, golden – and you can tell – soft. The thread that followed described southeast Asian cafe culture – the coffee shops are called kopi tiams – and the typical foods eaten at them. Curries with soft buttery rolls. Coconut jam. Lots of eggy things. It all sounded so delicious. And so veganizable.

I created this curry based on a chicken and potato curry stuffing for buns I found, but changed it to be vegan, obviously, and to be eaten in a bowl, rather than stuffed into bread. You could just eat it over rice or with any kind of bread. It has a lot of depth and great texture, if I do say so myself.

Indonesian cafe curry

2 tbsp peanut oil, plus more as needed

8 oz pkg tempeh, cubed

8 curry leaves, optional

1 onion, chopped

3-4 garlic cloves, minced

2 tbsp curry powder

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp cayenne or to taste

1/2 tsp turmeric

Salt to taste

12 oz red skinned potatoes, diced

3-4 carrots, chopped

1 cup veg stock

1 cup frozen peas

Place a large cast iron pan over slightly hotter than medium heat. Add the peanut oil, then add the tempeh, and saute until browned. Add the curry leaves, if using, and onions, stirring and sauteing until translucent. Add the garlic, and saute for another minute. Place the spices in a small bowl and add about a tablespoon of water to make a paste, stirring well. Push the contents of the pan aside to make a little room for the curry paste, and add the curry paste to the pan to get some direct pan contact for it, sort of toasting/frying it. Then mix the paste up with the rest of the pan’s contents. Add the potatoes, carrots, and veg stock, stirring well. Turn the heat up to medium-high, and bring to a boil. Once it’s boiling, turn the heat to medium-low, and cover. Let simmer for about 10 or 15 minutes, when potatoes and carrots are tender. Add the peas to the pan, increase the heat to medium, and cook, stirring, until heated through. Serve with soft rolls and coconut jam (recipes below).

Vegan butter rolls (adapted from Grace Chang’s recipe and method)

250 grams bread flour

250 grams white whole wheat flour

15 grams dry soy milk powder

10 grams instant yeast

75 grams sugar

8 grams salt

150 grams plain coconut milk yogurt

250 grams cold water

Place all of the dry ingredients in the bowl of a stand mixer. With the dough hook, mix for one minute on low speed. Add the yogurt and water and mix on low for about five minutes. Turn the speed to medium, and mix for another 7 or 8 minutes. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, and spread a little oil over the top. Let it rise for about an hour or two until doubled in bulk. Divide the dough into 40-gram pieces, and shape into balls. Let the dough rest on a floured board for about 15 minutes, then place in 9×13″ pan, cover, and let rise for another hour, until doubled in size. Preheat the oven to about 390 degrees. Bake for about 15 minutes until golden brown, and then let cool on a wire rack.

Coconut jam – Philipino style

1 13-oz can coconut cream

1 13-oz can coconut milk

8 oz brown sugar

Good pinch of kosher salt

Place ingredients in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat, and bring to a simmer. Turn heat to medium-low, and let simmer, stirring regularly, until the color is a dark chocolate brown, 2 to 3 hours. Spread on “butter” rolls.